New backer steers city shops vision

The former Mitchells Brewery in Lancaster

New developers have taken over the reins to bring a £75m retail and business development to Lancaster.

London-based British Land have acquired the Canal Corridor North site previously earmarked for development by Centros.

The firm has bought a 2.3 acre section of the site – including the former Mitchell’s brewery – and now has a development agreement in place with Lancaster City Council for the acquisition of its adjoining land, which they say will “enable the delivery of a significant canalside, mixed-use scheme across a 10 acre site.”

They promise to “significantly improve public space, the city’s cultural attractions and retail provision and further enhance the fortunes and overall appeal of the city.”

It is understood Centros will be working alongside British Land as project managers to deliver the scheme.

Richard Wise, head of retail development for British Land, said: “Working closely with Lancaster City Council and English Heritage, our aim is to deliver a scheme that complements the site’s historical setting.

“Lancaster has seen very little retail investment over the last two decades and we look forward to creating a retail and leisure destination to serve local people and attract significant numbers of visitors into the city.”

Coun Janice Hanson, cabinet member with responsibility for regeneration at Lancaster City Council, added: “This investment by British Land is a major coup and a vote of confidence in the future of Lancaster and the district as a whole.

“Along with the other exciting developments at Lancaster Castle and Luneside East, the Canal Corridor North site holds the key to our regeneration and future economic growth.

“These are exciting times for the Lancaster district and shows we are well placed to build our economy and create jobs for local people.”

Ann Morris, chief executive of Lancaster District Chamber of Commerce, said: “This latest news presents an opportunity to make real progress on the re-development of this site.

“The chamber supports a retail-led mixed use development proposal, but always had issues with road access and integration with the existing retail centre.

“We look forward to seeing whatever development proposals now come forward and to representing the views of our members in any consultation process.”

Detailed discussions will now take place with key stakeholders including Lancaster City Council and English Heritage, before an extensive public consultation process.

However, campaigners who had previously fought against aspects of the Centros plans have aired their concern about British Land.

In October 2011, the company was placed at number one, with 135 subsidiaries, on a list of FTSE 100 companies that use tax havens for their operations, as revealed in a database of their subsidiaries compiled for the first time by the development charity ActionAid.

Green councillor Chris Coates said: “The government is urging action to stop tax avoiders such as Starbucks, but the city council is actively supporting a massive tax avoider in British Land.

“I think this sends out an appalling message to tax payers in the district.”

Billy Pye, a spokesman for campaign group It’s Our City, said: “I think the council has got some questions to ask at a time when the country is focusing on people who aren’t paying tax in this country.

“We were never anti-development or anti-Centros so we will wait and see what happens.

“We are more than happy to participate in any consultation process.”

The Canal Corridor North site has been clouded in controversy in recent years.

Centros revised their original scheme in March, after Lancaster City Council agreed to extend the period of its development agreement by five years.

The developer previously had a scheme rejected by the Secretary of State following a public inquiry in 2009.

British Land has a portfolio which includes 82 retail parks, 92 superstores, 13 shopping centres and nine department stores, including the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield.

It is also building the Leadenhall Building, informally called the Cheesegrater because of its distinctive shape, in London, which will become one of the tallest buildings in western Europe when it is completed in 2014.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Lancaster Guardian provides news, events and sport features from the Lancaster area. For the best up to date information relating to Lancaster and the surrounding areas visit us at Lancaster Guardian regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Lancaster Guardian requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.